Can't Help Smiling
by Branonymous
Summary: Team RWBY is fighting off Grimm and things aren't looking too good. Ruby knowing what needs to be done, reflects a bit on her team before making the ultimate choice. Major character death, mentioning of Black Rose/Ladybug. My first attempt at something like this. Rated M for death and slight gore.
1. Chapter 1

She couldn't stop herself from smiling.

They had made it. The Grimm were dead and everyone was alright. Injured, but alive. They'd all survive...

But she wouldn't.

She had known this shortly before she killed the last of them herself. How? The hole in the right side of her chest, puncturing her lung in the process attested to that fact. After the brief pain from the Alpha Beowolf stabbing her as she killed an Ursa passed, she couldn't feel anything.

She knew then and there, her chances were slim. But they were still fighting. Her friends... no... her family, we're still fighting.

Yang, her older sister, using Ember Celica to push back a Boarbatusk while killing another Beowolf. Her eyes were glowing red and fire was blazing all around her... but she knew that Yang was tired. Her reflexes had slowed and even she, with all her strength was struggling to push the Boarbatusk away. The gashes on her arms and legs didn't help either. It was only a matter of time.

Weiss, her partner and best friend, was using Myrtenaster with some blue dust, aided by her Semblance to send a spear of ice through the air at the Nevermore that had joined the fight about half way through. Even at this distance, she knew the heiress wouldn't last much longer. The amount of her Aura she had used for her dust spells on top of her Semblance was massive. The blood flowing from the wound on her head when she had been thrown across the clearing into a tree was also apparent, her shoulder stained red. That she was fighting at all was astonishing, or it would be if they had time to focus on it. But even with all her willpower, she couldn't last much longer.

And finally Blake, her last teammate, her sister's partner, but more importantly, the woman she fell in love with. They had gotten together about midway into their second year at Beacon. Though they rarely did anything too intimate, they had. They trusted each other with all their hearts. It had been her that Blake had decided to reveal her Faunus heritage and later her history with the White Fang to first, because if she didn't accept her, then there was little hope for the others. But her fears had been unfounded, for the first thing she had done was capture her lips to stop her out of character nervous rambling, saying that, "Of course it changes things. It allows me to love even more of you than I could before." That night was the first night they had spent together, not just in the same bed, but truly together, heart, mind, body, and soul. She knew then that if she could save Blake's life, almost no matter the cost, even her own life, she would.

Now, with Blake throwing one end Gamboul Shroud at one Beowolf while using the other to slash a different one to her side, blood staining the stomach of her clothes red, she had a feeling that the time to lay down her life for her love was at hand. But, she wouldn't just save her, she'd save her friend and sister as well.

Under normal circumstances, she couldn't do this. Her Semblance was more than just the speed that most others saw. To her, time around her would slow down while she herself seemed unaffected. How much it would slow depended on how much she wanted it to. The only drawback was the strain it put on her entire body. The more she slowed time down, and the longer she stayed in that state, the larger the consequence. She had only done this to the point of stopping time once and that was only for what, to her was a few seconds. The strain built up quickly and she could hardly feel her limbs, had a sharp pain in her chest, and a massive headache for the following hour and a half.

But now, she knew that even though she should be feeling enough pain to cause her to scream in intense agony, she couldn't feel anything at all. So, knowing that her chances were beyond slim already with the difficulty she was having breathing and the blood that she had lost, she pushed her Semblance to the limit, and everything around her froze.

To her, for the next two minutes, she ran at the remaining Grimm, slicing them all in half with her other sweetheart, Crescent Rose. Once she had finished, she stumbled over to the closest tree, then looked again at the dead, yet standing Grimm, and finally to her team and family. She took another few seconds to look at the scene knowing she wouldn't last much longer, before finally releasing her control over her Semblance. In an instant, everything began moving again, her team lashing out at the Grimm only for them to split in a slight shower of blood before dissipating.

She watched as they grew confused expressions on their faces before finally taking a look around and relaxing as they saw all the Grimm were dead. The expression stayed though as they still didn't know what had happened. It wasn't until they saw their leader, sitting at the base of a tree smiling. They returned the smile before moving towards her. It was only as they got closer that they realized her condition, the tired beyond exhausted look in her dulling silver eyes, blood practically pouring out of her chest, as well as the bit dripping from both sides of her mouth, and the numerous cuts on her body, that they ran towards her screaming her name.

 **So, what did you think? I've always appreciated the feels that come from stories like this, that involve main character death. So after reading a few, I decided to try and write one myself. Personally, Ithink it's okay, but not necessarily great. Oh, I also have a slight idea to expand this for maybe another chapter or two but that depends on how well this one is recieved. Well at any rate, please let me know what you think.**

 **Fixed some spelling/grammar issues. If you see anything else that you feel needs to be fixed, let me know.**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Branonymous**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well people seemed to be enjoying the story so far so here's the next chapter. Oh yeah, I don't own anything. I'm so poor T_T.**

 *** Blake POV ***

I don't know how long we'd been fighting. Just that the Grimm never seemed to stop coming. I could feel myself close to collapsing due to my wounds and general exhaustion. The scratch just above my stomach was bleeding pretty badly, but I was certain that I would survive that in and of itself.

Quickly scanning the clearing after killing another Beowolf that was getting too close for comfort, I looked at the other members of my team and noticed that they were in similar situations. Only Ruby seemed to be in a better state of health. I could see that she was definitely getting tired, but she always had a lot of energy so it made sense.

Snapping my focus to the closest Grimm next to me, an Ursa, I prepared to launch Gamboul Shroud at it before it suddenly collapsed, bisected vertically.

Knowing that we were still fighting, I didn't focus on the confusion entering my mind, moving on to the next Grimm... only to find it in a similar state, fading away. Looking around the clearing, I saw all of the remaining Grimm in the same condition, dead.

Once I finally realized that the fight was over, a confused frown made its way onto my face, mirroring my thoughts perfectly. Snapping my gaze to the other members of my team, who were injured, though nothing they couldn't push through. Their expressions matched mine to a tee. Only then did I notice that something was missing.

Scanning the clearing once again, I finally found the red and black clothes, something rather difficult to do in Forever Fall. It was then that I saw the one who had killed all of those Grimm, sitting against a tree with a smile on her face, her weapon leaning beside her. The woman, though two years younger than myself, was beautiful. Her petite, yet slightly muscled form, crimson tipped black hair that framed her face perfectly, the same face that almost always had a smile upon it, only adding to her stunning visage.

Ruby was there against the tree staring at me with a loving expression in the same silver eyes that had sparked my initial interest in her. An interest that eventually grew into friendship, which then became a crush, and then finally, when Ruby showed the same feelings towards me as I had her, love. It was shortly after we had started dating in secret that I revealed one of my biggest secrets, that I was a Faunus. I still blushed lightly at her response.

It was only as Yang, Weiss, and I walked over to her that we noticed her injuries. Her clothes were a darker shade of red than usual, and we could clearly see the gaping wound on her chest just below her right breast.

"Ruby!" We all shouted in unison.

Racing over towards her, I ended up on her right, Yang and Weiss on her left. I immediately knelt down and grabbed her hand, squeezing her hand lightly, and began to examine her closer.

She had about the same number of wounds as we had but the one on her chest was very deep. Looking up at her face confirmed my worst fear, her lung had been punctured. I began to tear up slightly before taking my other hand and attempting to focus the small amount of Aura I had left to her lung to attempt to heal it. But, as I began to do so, I felt Ruby squeeze my hand to gain my attention.

Once again focusing on her face, I looked into her eyes once again. Only this time I saw something mixed in with the love in her eyes. Something that nearly shattered my heart, an apology.

"Sorry Blakey, but I'm too far gone, all the Aura in the world probably couldn't save me now." She said softly, smiling sadly at me.

"What?!" Yang took this moment to speak, or rather yell, up.

"Yeah you dolt, let us help you!" Weiss responded, agreeing with Yang.

Tears began falling down my face at this point, the truth setting in. I knew that even if we tried to heal her, it'd only delay the inevitable. Our evac wasn't coming for about two hours and even with the minimal healing we could do, she already had too much blood in her lungs, her wet sounding breathing proof enough.

"There's no point, even if you could heal it completely, the odds of me surviving with the blood in my lungs isn't the greatest and... even if that hadn't happened, my odds right now would be beyond slim."

"W-what are you talking about?" I questioned softly, squeezing her hand more as my voice began breaking slightly.

"When I use my Semblance, it's not truly me speeding up, or at least not from my perspective. To me it's essentially my perception of time slowing while I stay the same. Depending on how hard I push it, the amount the slows to me changes. However, it does have a pretty big drawback."

"What?" I asked, noticing that Yang and Weiss had seemingly stopped responding in shock of the younger woman dying in front of them.

"The hard I push it, and the longer I use it, the bigger the strain it puts on me physically. I've only gone to virtually stopped time once before, for about 5 seconds or so in my perception, and ended up in complete and utter agony for the next hour and a half, unable to move. Just now... I did it for two minutes. The strain on my body would undoubtedly cause me to black out after a short time and probably stay that way for quite awhile, if not out right kill me, which luckily it didn't. It's only because I couldn't feel anything after the Alpha stabbed me that I even considered the option once I saw you all struggling."

"R-ruby..." I began sobbing, now knowing that she did this to save us.

"Yang, I want you to know that you are the greatest sister I could have hoped for, no matter what you may think. I want to ask you two last favors before I'm gone."

"Y-yeah? What is it?" Yang asked, her lilac eyes pouring tears.

"First, I want you to watch over everybody, dad especially. Second, I want to be with mom on the cliff."

"You didn't even have to ask."

"Thank you. Weiss?"

"Yeah y-you d-dolt?" Weiss responded, tear of her own having begun to fall a short time before.

Chuckling slightly at the long time friendly nickname, Ruby continued. "I want you to know that you're my best friend, and that I'm happy to have had you as my partner. I think of you as my sister, just like Yang is, and I can easily say that you're just that in all but blood. The last thing I want you to do is something you wanted a while back but never got. I want you to be the new team leader. I need you to stay strong for them, as much as it may hurt, because they'll need it."

"Ruby... I'll do it. Under one condition."

"Hm?"

"I become leader in all but title because that belongs to you, even if you're gone." Weiss responded seriously, though the was a definite melanchovy tone to it.

Giggling lightly, Ruby answered "Fine by me Snowflake. Hey Weiss, Yang? Do you think I could get some time alone with Blake? Though I'm okay with you hearing it, it's rather personal."

After a moment, they looked at each other and nodded, before heading off, leaving me and Ruby alone.

"Blake... I'm sorry. I don't want to leave you alone, but I can't stay for much longer." Ruby began, bringing me into a hug, with me laying slightly on top of her, her own tears falling now.

"I k-know Ruby." I sobbed out.

"I want to thank you for making my life infinitesimally better by coming into it and loving me. When I first came to Beacon, I only had Yang, and Weiss wasn't exactly the best company back then. But you showed me that I wasn't alone, I just didn't know I had anyone yet. I want to thank you for loving me and making the past year the happiest of my life. Also, I don't care what you do with it, so long as you don't destroy it, I want you to have Crescent Rose." As she finished she cupped my face with her hand bringing it closer to her own.

"I'm going to miss you."

"I'm not going to miss you."

"W-what?!" I gasped out.

"How can I miss you if you're always on my mind, and forever in my heart?" She stated resolutely, her voice beginning to fade, and tears pouring out more than ever.

"Ruby..."

"I love you Blake."

With that, she brought me into a kiss that I returned wholeheartedly, carressing her face in much the same way, not caring in the slightest about the trickles of blood dripping down the sides of her mouth. It was at this time that I wished I had Ruby's Semblance, so I could live this moment forever, damn the consequences. Even so, it seemed to last for hours, with us pouring all of the love we had into it.

However, it could not last forever as I felt Ruby begin to fade her had slowly slipping from my face, before she let out her last breath.

"I l-love you too R-Ruby!" I began sobbing violently, shaking as I hugged her body to mine.

 *** One week later - Blake POV ***

I stood upon a snowy cliff, staring at the two graves. The one on the left read: "Summer Rose, Thus Kindly I Scatter". Looking over to the right tombstone, which had a black rose resting upon it, it read: "Ruby Rose, Though The Petals May Scatter, Never Shall I Be Forgotten". The cold wind began to pick up, so I adjusted the red scarf around my neck slightly to keep myself a bit warmer.

"Hey Blake! Your ready to go?" I heard Yang shout from behind me.

"Yeah, just a second!" I yelled back, turning slightly to look at her.

As she left, I turned back to the grave. A single tear falling from my eye as I spoke.

"Happy anniversary Ruby. I love you."

With that I turned and left, missing the stray rose petals in the breeze, falling upon the graves before the wind picked up once again, carrying the petals, and now the lone black rose, into the heavens.

 **So, what did you think? I think it's alright, if a bit... cheesy in a way. But that's me and I made it so I'm extremely biased. But anyways favorite and review if you enjoyed the story.**

 **Also, on a slightly different note, I have an idea for another story, this one being longer, that mostly follows cannon. I will say this much, it involves a Faunus Ruby (though I shall not say what kind, I have only seen it once before), and is a Blake/Ruby pairing. Personally, I'm not sure what to call the pairing as I've seen a few names, some of which I like more than others. There's Ladybug and Black Rose, the two common standbys, which aren't bad. Another one I saw was Books and Weapons playing on their hobbies, though I feel Pen and Swords works a bit better. Them there is the one that I just came up with while writing this chapter, Silver and Gold, based off of their eyes. I'm going to call the pairing as such, because I can, but let me know which one you guys like the best.**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Branonymous**


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